Lookie Loos – a scavenger hunt in your hand

October 24, 2006

From Kiddley reader Anne Margaret (the woman who brought us the now web-famous crayon cookies) comes Lookie Loos! This is such a great project. The idea is to fill an empty drink bottle full of rice and trinkets with a list of the contents stuck on the outside. As the child turns the bottle from side to side and shakes it up, the trinkets reveal themselves and your child can mark off what they find on the list.

You will need:
An empty, dry drink bottle
A bunch of little trinkets and odds and ands (such as you see below)
Rice or sand
Food colouring, a couple of tablespoons of alcohol and a plastic bag (optional)
Super glue and/or packing tape
Paper
Pens or computer
Funnel

Anne Margaret’s instructions are fabulously straight forward. In a nutshell:

Make a list of your trinkets before you put them in the bottle.

If you want to colour your rice (as Anne Margaret has done) you will need to put it in a plastic bag along with the alcohol and food colouring. Seal the bag, and squish the colour and rice around. Let it sit for an hour or so and then spread it out (on a tray or the like) and let it dry outside.

Add your trinkets to the bottle and then the rice, using the funnel. Leave some space at the top so the rice can swish around when shaken.

Stick on the lid with super glue and also wrap some packing tape around it if you have littlies. Stick on a label with a list of the contents. You may want to do this on the computer and use different fonts or colours or even pictures of the items for the pre-readers.

Now it’s time to play! Shake up the bottle and as different trinkets are found cross them off the list.

We think that you could use this as a party game, stocking stuffer, toy for the car on long trips or for a small baby who will just enjoy shaking it and looking at the contents.

7 Responses to “Lookie Loos – a scavenger hunt in your hand”

You have made my day, my week, my year! What a glowing report you gave me. I am just so excited to be a teeny part of your wonderful site. Visits here give me the inspiration to try so many fun, wonderful things. It’s all about making memories with my family and sharing the joy of life. Thanks for creating such great inspiration!

[…] The nephews got a little handmade something that, again, I forgot to photograph before giving. I made little I Spy games for them–little trinkets hidden in colored rice in bottles. (Idea, tutorial, and better pictures can be found at Kiddley) The older nephew got into trying to find all the hidden treasures. The younger nephew was happy to just shake the noisy bottle. […]

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